TSN's Bob McKenzie reports that Danny DeKeyser may be receiving the kind of "wining and dining" treatment usually reserved for NHL superstars and not 23-year-old #3/4 defenseman in the making, but DeKeyser needs to make a decision as to which one of the probably 20+ teams that have made presentations at Newport Sports Management provides the best option and opportunity for him, and he needs to do so ahead of next Wednesday's trade deadline. As such:

College UFA D Dan DeKeyser will continue meet teams/field offers in TOR today/tomorrow. Decision possible either later Thursday or Friday.

In news regarding actual Red Wings players, ESPN's Craig Custance reports that MLive's Ansar Khan's suggestions that Jimmy Howard's about to ink a 6-year contract extension at or around $5 million per season might be a little premature.

In his Insider-only blog, Custance discusses the respective statuses of six teams with big goaltending decisions to make, and he states that the Howard contract extensions have stalled, at least for the present moment (cue likely complications due to the DeKeyser sweepstakes and the April 3rd trade deadline):

Detroit Red Wings: Jimmy Howard is playing in the final season of his deal worth a very reasonable $2.25 million and is set to be a UFA after this season. I was told on Monday that there's "no update" in regard to a new deal for Howard, who has been a rock for the Red Wings in a tumultuous season. He's 14-8-4 this season, with a 2.37 goals-against average and 91.9 save percentage. Mike Babcock leans on Howard pretty heavily, and, when the Detroit defense was patchworked together earlier this season because of injuries, Howard kept the Red Wings in games. The challenge is finding the right price for a goalie who is 29 years old and playing in an organization careful not to overpay for goaltending.

Speaking of trade and re-signing chatter, Yahoo Sports' Nicholas J. Cotsonika has just penned a trade deadline primer, and he duly notes that jam-packed standings thanks to both "parity" and a condensed 48-game schedule will probably yield much more chatter than action:

There is an unusual dynamic this year creating fewer sellers, higher prices and reluctant buyers.

The lockout shortened the season from 82 games to 48. It also pushed back the trade deadline from late February or early March to April 3.

Few teams are out of the race at this point, and more than half the league is on what you might define as the bubble. Sixteen teams are within five points of a playoff spot – plus or minus – seven in the East, nine in the West.

It’s a seller’s market – or should be. Less supply, more demand, right? Teams might be so desperate that they would inquire about Florida Panthers center Stephen Weiss, a pending unrestricted free agent out with a wrist injury, to see if he might be ready for the playoffs.

But here’s the problem: The standings are actually stratified despite the parity in the league, with the top contenders separating from the pack. There are fewer games left than normal at this point, and there will be even fewer left a week from now.

Is it worth paying a high price to rent a pending unrestricted free agent when you might have him for only about a dozen regular-season games – or, in the case of Weiss, when you might have him for no regular-season games?

...

Even if you do make it, your new player might not have had enough time to integrate into the system and make the desired impact in the playoffs.

Two other factors: The draft is strong this year, so picks are worth even more than usual, and the salary cap will come down to $64.3 million next season. [Hurricanes GM Jim] Rutherford just signed winger Alex Semin to a five-year contract with a cap hit of $7 million. If you make a hockey trade, not just add an expiring contract, you could have a payroll problem.

Between the Wings' desire to see their youth movement and de-facto rebuilding year out and the fact that the team will re-sign UFA's-to-be Howard, Valtteri Filppula and Damien Brunner, the fact that restricted free agents-to-be Gustav Nyquist, Joakim Andersson, Brendan Smith and Jakub Kindl come off their entry-level deals this year...

And, as Capgeek.com's organization chart notes, the team's going to have to make some very difficult decisions regarding both UFA's-to-be Daniel Cleary, Drew Miller and Ian White given that Nyquist, Andersson, Tomas Tatar and Brian Lashoff have all earned spots on next year's team (cue at least possible, if not probable cap compliance buy-outs aimed at Mikael Samuelsson and Carlo Colaiacovo, and no, the team won't buy out Johan Franzen)...

The Wings may feel that the cost of adding a player in terms of prospects, picks and having to take on salary with the cap going down just don't make good business sense. The Wings' management (remember, Ken Holland, Jim Nill, Ryan Martin, Kris Draper, the pro scouts working under Mark Howe [ex. Kirk Maltby], the amateur scouts working under Joe McDonell [like Hakan Andersson], the team's prospect mentors and the coaching staff make decisions as a group) has to think in four dimensions, considering what the team's cap situation might be 2 or 3 years down the road, which players may exit the lineup and which prospects may steal NHL jobs, so they're not just going to throw assets at another team to plug a hole this season at the expense of creating multiple roster holes or salary cap messes down the line.

Of note from the Wings: The team posted its in-rink game-opening video...

In the prospect department, as noted in the overnight report, Ben Marshall's University of Wisconsin Golden Gophers will tangle with Yale University at Grand Rapids' Van Andel Arena at 2 PM EDT on Friday, and Nick Jensen and Saint Cloud State University will battle the University of Notre Dame at the Huntington Center in Toledo, OH at 1:30 PM EDT on Saturday. With the NCAA regional playoffs visiting Grand Rapids and Toledo, MLive's Peter J. Wallner's offering a Grand Rapids Griffins-player-based trivia column, but I'm going to mention the first part of his article instead:

While the Grand Rapids Griffins are strapped with their longest road trip of the AHL season through April 10, the NCAA Division I ice hockey West Regional will be contested Friday and Saturday, March 29 and 30, in Van Andel Arena.

Friday’s games have No. 4 Yale (18-12-3) against No. 1 Minnesota (26-8-5) at 2 p.m., followed at 5:30 p.m. by No. 2 North Dakota (21-12-7) against No. 3 Niagara (23-9-5).

The winners meet 4 p.m. Saturday.

However, the Griffins don’t have to be out of mind – and probably shouldn’t be considering they’re crushing the Midwest Division heading into Thursday’s game at San Antonio.

The 19-year-old right-winger had the game of his life on Friday as the QMJHL playoffs opened, recording an astonishing five goals and three assists in the Halifax Mooseheads’ 11-1 blowout of the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Say what you want about the QMJHL’s owner-friendly 16-of-18-teams-get-into-the-playoffs gimmick that left the nationally-top-ranked Mooseheads 73-point favorites coming into the series — an eight-point game hadn’t occurred in the QMJHL post-season since Daniel Briere did it in 1995-96 and it even matched Mario Lemieux’s single-game best. Pierre Rioux holds the all-time playoff recored of 10 set in 1982.

If Frk’s blowup wasn’t a sign that his 2011-12 concussion woes are completely behind him, his numbers since returning from the IIHF world junior championship are more convincing: in his past 31 games, Frk has 28 goals and 27 assists for 55 points.

A big part of that is playing with two top-five draft prospects, the electrifyingly fast Nathan MacKinnon and the slick-mitted Jonathan Drouin. Getting bumped up to the top line has no doubt energized Frk after a slow start on the team’s second line.

Although the Red Wings’ second-round pick (49th overall) last June does not carry the unit with MacKinnon and Drouin, his NHL-calibre shot and offensive instincts have made him a perfect complement to them.

...

Frk, who is expected to vie for a spot with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins next season, has to improve his skating in a big way to be an effective pro, let alone an NHL prospect, and will need to continue to mature with regard to playing a complete game and being disciplined — as he’s shown signs of doing with an active eight-game no-minor-penalty streak, a career-best.

Frk is in the first year of a three-year entry-level contract in which he is earning a $92,500 signing bonus in addition to $10,500 in junior pay from the Red Wings. His contract will slide to begin in 2013-14, keeping him under contract through 2016-2017.

Update: Hockey's Future's methodology in naming its Top 50 prospects baffles the mind. They ranked Gustav Nyquist 34th overall, and today, Brendan Smith sits behind players who aren't even playing in the NHL:

At age 24, Brendan Smith has finally cracked the Detroit Red Wings roster full-time. His playmaking abilities and shot are NHL-caliber, and he is not afraid to play physically despite being a rookie. His strong, mobile skating is also an asset. The issue with Smith is consistency and decision making. He tends to overthink at times which causes him to hesitate and give the puck away or force a more difficult pass than needed. He also disappears at times and does not always appear fully engaged. If he can put it all together, he has the tools needed to be a top-pairing defenseman for the Red Wings.

Bill: Now that the Red Wings are getting healthy do you see them making any moves before the trade deadline?

Pierre LeBrun: Wings want a d-man big time

Craig Custance: Bill - Red Wings could use a boost on D, although they have a lot of bodies there. Interesting to see if they add Danny DeKeyser to the mix this week. Don't think Detroit is too eager to move another first-round pick though after trading for Quincey last year.

Comments

the team’s going to have to make some very difficult decisions regarding both UFA’s-to-be Daniel Cleary, Drew Miller

I think the only decision even approaching difficult is with Miller, and even then the Wings still have too many bottom-six forwards, so unless they want to have Emmerton and Miller rotating on the fourth line, there’s not much room for him.

Is Filppula really an automatic resign if his demands are for $5 million/season? The Wings let Hudler walk last year for what seemed like a reasonable amount in today’s market. Plus they have a lot of guys that look like they would fit the bill as a top line LW (Franzen, Nyquist to name a couple).

I just can’t see them paying him like a top line LW especially in a season where he has gone back to producing at a .5 pts/game clip which would be in line with his his career average prior to last season when he was at .8/game. I mean $5mil/season for 16 goals and 40pts per year?

I love the guy as a third line center earning in the 3.5mil/range but if the Wings want to have enough cash to resign Howard, Brunner, Smith and the others, plus upgrade the defense and add a top six forward with size ... #51 might be ‘the real hard’ decision that Holland has to address.

As for Fil, the Wings won’t trade him unless they can’t sign him at or before the draft. If there’s no hope, they’ll move his rights or do a sign-and-trade deal.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 03/27/13 at 03:33 PM ET

That’s a dumb way for the Wings to approach the situation. The Wings likely will get more value at the deadline than moving his rights. I think a sign and trade is improbable because it occurs so rarely. Either he signs on the dotted line now for $3.5M or you trade him at the deadline. I think the Wings can stay on pace they are on and make the playoffs w/o Fil.

It’s also notable that they employ the “we’re going to pretend you have a genuine chance to make the team and then waive you and get nothing for you” approach to young players. The good thing is that they re-sign those players to one-way contracts so it’s kind of like a sign-and-trade except you get nothing for the player.

The Wings likely will get more value at the deadline than moving his rights.

The problem with Holland constantly saying “I like our team” is that he genuinely appears to like his team and is under some kind of delusion that they’re always truly Cup contenders, so keeping Stuart around last year when he KNEW Stuart was going back to California was worth it, because they really truly had a good chance to win the Cup.

The problem with Holland constantly saying “I like our team” is that he genuinely appears to like his team and is under some kind of delusion that they’re always truly Cup contenders, so keeping Stuart around last year when he KNEW Stuart was going back to California was worth it, because they really truly had a good chance to win the Cup.

But everyone knew Stuart wanted to move to the West Coast for family reasons. Holland dealing him at the deadline would have gotten us arguably less than what we ended up receiving from San Jose.

Posted by
babymachine
from Portland, Oregon by way of Macomb, Michigan on 03/27/13 at 04:56 PM ET

so unless they want to have Emmerton and Miller rotating on the fourth line, there’s not much room for him.

Posted by Garth on 03/27/13 at 01:46 PM ET

Emmerton has actually played Miller’s way out of a Job. He has been very good. The only consideration Miller has now is his dedication and hard work on the PK, they have to decide if someone else can replace that.

Except that the Wings already have a third line centre (Helm) and two fourth line centres (Abby/Emmerton).

Posted by Garth on 03/27/13 at 03:01 PM ET

Helm is a Top 6’er, just needs to start finishing his chances. To me, that’s where all this centre stuff is going. The Circus (minus Homer of course) can stick together and Abby and Emmerton can hold down the Bottom 6. Fil belongs on the wing, and I seriously hope we can keep him at a reasonable rate. There are few players in the league like him when he’s going, though at his age I agree the consistency simply needs to be there.

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